Blitz: The League

An arcade style football game and is a part of the long running Blitz series by Midway.

Overview

Blitz: The League is a game of brutal, arcade style football designed to clash with the more popular Madden series after they bought the rights to making NFL games. It consists of a fictional league simply called 'The League' and is composed of several teams that will do anything in order to win, even if it means playing dirty. Further more, some of the stars of these teams are exaggerated parody's of those in the NFL.

Story

Quentin Sands is the main antagonist of the game
Quentin Sands is the main antagonist of the game

In the opening cutscene the players team's quarterback gets his finger broken thanks to the dirty play of the star of the New York Nightmares, Quentin Sands, in a game wining make-or-break moment. The Nightmares are the best team around and they ascend to Division 1 by knocking the player's team down to the Division 3.

At this point the team's owner, Lyman Strang, wants to start fresh with a whole new roster of players and coaches as well as a new city, team name, and mascot. The player decides on what coaches to hire and what key offensive rookie and defensive veteran to draft. This process can get fairly detailed with highly customizable team uniforms and the ability to change the names of most of the football players.

The story begins after the player has built their new team and the team must work their way from the bottom of division 3 to division 1 champions beating the New York Nightmare in the championship game.

Gameplay

Juicing injured players is a risky move
Juicing injured players is a risky move

Blitz: The League is an arcade style 8 on 8 football game and plays similarly to previous games in the series. Their are no penalties and fumbles and interceptions are much more common than in simulation style football. Also, the player must accumulate 30 yards in order to complete a first down instead of the standard 10.

To help the player accomplish this the game features a clash meter. When used, the clash meter will slow down time allowing the player to run passed or power through defenders. Doing special moves while in clash earns clash icons and when enough clash icons are earned an unleash move can be used. Unleash moves work similarly to gamebreakers in EA sports titles, and when used on offense they can help score an easy touchdown. When used on defense the player will perform a gruesome hit that has a good chance of injuring the player or causing them to fumble the ball.

When a player gets a injury that requires less than one game to heal, the team has the option to juice the player o that he can return to the game sooner. However, if he gets hit hard again he will get a bigger injury and be out for several weeks. Choosing to simply treat the player will avoid the risk.

Campaign

During the campaign mode the player has the option to train their players in order to approve their skills. This can be accomplished by training certain attributes such as speed or arm strength, upgrading training equipment, upgrading players equipment (i.e. shoes), and/or by juicing players with drugs. Juicing players too much, however, can cause the player to become ill, get suspended, or get the team fined.

The player also has the ability to bet on their own games in order to earn money. In order to win the bet, the player must win by the amount they are favored by or more. If they are underdogs, they simply have to win the game in order to win the bet. Betting more will earn more money, but runs the risk of losing more if the bet is not won.

Cash can be spent on upgrades and drugs. Betting is one way to earn money, and it can also be earned during the game by performing clash combos, unleash moves, dirty hits, etc. Also occasional challenges will pop up throughout the campaign and completing these challenges will earn rewards. Examples of challenges are sacking the opposing quarterback X amount of times or holding an opposing player under X amount of yards.

Teams

Division 1

TeamTeam Captain
New York NightmareQuentin Sands
Dallas AztecsJulius Williams
New England RegularsVonnie Treonday
Seattle ReignChad Longstreet
Detroit DevilsCookie Wallace
Denver GrizzliesKelvin Donaldson

Division 2

TeamTeam Captain
Minnesota ReapersTony Forbes
San Diego CyclonesEzekial Freeman
Carolina CopperheadsGrant Tanner
Kansas City CrossfireTyrell Price
Las Vegas AcesKelvin Diggs
Orlando HammerheadsChris James

Division 3

TeamTeam Captain
Arizona OutlawsTito Maas
Baltimore BearcatsBruno Battaglia
Chicago MaraudersShane Spain
Washington RedhawksJacob Williams
Cincinnati CrusadersKwazi Mbutabe

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Blitz: The League consists of several licensed tracks, most of them being hip-hop.

Felonious Funk

  • “Felonious Funk A Track Remix “

B Real and DJ Lethal

  • "All My Life"
  • "Play At Your Own Risk"

The Beatnuts

  • “No Escapin’ This”

Buck

  • "The Streets"
  • "My Team"
  • "Blitz My Team Remix"

El Pus

  • "Suburb Thuggin'"

Fat Lip (from The Pharcyde)

  • "Today's Your Day (Whatchagonedu?)"

Heavy Mojo

  • “Radio”
  • “So You Say”

HED P.E.

  • "Represent"

Non Phixion

  • "Rock Stars"

Obscure Disorder

  • “2004“

Phifty/50

  • "Let 'Em Hate"

The Rascalz

  • "Hit Em Up" (feat. Kardinal Offishall,Solitair & Ylook)
  • "Jungle"

Raskal

  • "Cross The Line"

Shadow

  • “Play Dirty”

Skindred

  • “Bruises”
  • “Pressure”

Son Doobie

  • “U Wit That”
  • “Full Moon”

Swollen Members

  • “Too Hot”

Visionaries

  • "Pangaea"
  • "If You Can't Say Love"

Xbox 360 Game Installation

Blitz: The League requires 6.4GB of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD.